This Christmas
by Championship Vinyl
Summary: This is TWO oneshots back-to-back. A holiday theme for the holiday season. My "Christmas special," if you will. Fluffy, funny, and good! Read and review, pleeze.
1. We're Happy Tonight

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**[Disclaimer: I don't own Anastasia.] In the spirit of the holidays, I've decided to give my (Anastasia) readers a present. This project is a two-pack of oneshots, and both involve an A/D Christmas. (Sorry if you don't celebrate it; I just thought of that...) This first oneshot takes place on Christmas Eve, 1927, a little over a year since the film. It's kind of their first official, settled Christmas together, and they're back in Paris. Read, enjoy, Merry Christmas (or happy holidays), and leave me a review just like you leave Santa cookies. Second chapter coming in 2 days or less. :D **

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The snow fell softly on the other side of the glass, filling the darkening sky with thousands of fluffy white flakes on their way to the ground. The layer on the street, crisscrossed with toboggan tracks and footprints, sparkled slightly from the faint, far-off glow of the Eiffel Tower.

Anya felt her best friend's arms slip around her from behind, but she didn't turn around. Not yet. "Isn't it beautiful?" she said.

"I definitely like snow better from this side of the wall," Dimitri replied by way of agreement. "Aren't you gonna turn around?"

"In a minute." The scene held her in a trance, almost.

Dimitri wasn't that patient. "Oh, so _snow_ is more interesting than _me_?" he joked.

"Snow melts. You, however, will still be here when it does." She had tried to keep evidence of her smile out of her voice, but it wasn't working so well.

"Come on," he begged. "I didn't want to say anything, but your mutt got himself stuck under the tree. And we both know he won't listen to _me_."

He had a point. Anya sighed, sad to have to leave her windowside seat. "All right, all right." She got up and walked over to the massive, decorated conifer Vlad had brought them, and dropped to the carpet on her hands and knees. "Pooka? Here boy!" She peered under the thick green blanket of needles in search of her wayward-as-usual pup. "Come on, Pooka, I don't understand _how_ you even---"

Anya stopped. It was pretty obvious now that there _was_ no Pooka, at least not in _there_. That wasn't what stopped her, however. The sight of a small box did, wrapped in gold paper and tied with a red ribbon bow.

She picked it up and slowly brought herself back to a sitting position on the floor. Dimitri dropped to his knee beside her. "Here. The knot can be kind of tricky. I'll do it."

She placed the box in his hand, staring at him. "But I thought..."

"I know, I know," he reasoned, pulling a loop of ribbon free from itself, "we agreed to wait until tomorrow. But if I waited, I wouldn't be _me_, now, _would_ I?"

Anya felt her own face being pulled into a smile just like the one he wore. Resistance was futile.

She expected him to move at some point, to at least sit down or something, but he didn't. Instead, he stayed on one knee while he pulled the paper away from the little box.

"Honestly, I had no clue what to get you. At first, anyway," he was saying. "I felt like there was no way I could get you something you didn't already have. But then I thought about how we got here, about that night we decided to elope, and I realized there was one thing you never got."

The paper was gone now, and all that remained was the little black box in Dimitri's hand. He pulled the lid back on its tiny brass hinge, and, to Anya's shock, its content was a diamond ring.

_A proposal. The one thing you never got._

"Anya, will you marry me?"

She could barely breathe. In a million years, she would never have expected this. Her look of pure surprise faded back into a broad smile, and her eyes blurred a little before she wiped them dry. "Too late," she laughed.

"You know me," Dimitri grinned, thoroughly enjoying her reaction. "Always doing things backwards." He paused a second. "You've still got a line."

"Yes," she stammered, throwing her arms around his neck. "Yes, I will, absolutely. I will, er, I did."

"You're babbling," he laughed.

"It's okay, it's your fault." She leaned in, then, and kissed him for a long, long time. "Thank you," she said when she pulled away.

He took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger. After a moment, Anya began to laugh uncontrollably, and Dimitri just looked at her. "What?"

It took her a moment to be able to speak. "What I got you is gonna seem so pathetic now...."

He grinned. "I win, then."

"That was your plan, wasn't it?"

"Nah, just a fringe benefit." He kissed her again, and then said, "You wanna go back to the window now?"

"We have a window?"

Dimitri laughed. "Merry Christmas, Your Highness."


	2. Just Like The Ones I Used To Know

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**Hope you liked part 1. It was sappier than I usually do, but I couldn't help it---I'd just seen like _forty thousand _"Every kiss begins with Kay" commercials. =) Here is the second oneshot! This one is Christmas Eve, 1943. Tasha (see "Somewhere Down This Road") is six, and their son is one. (I should explain him, since I haven't before: Their second and last child, in my mind, would be born when Tasha is five. His name is Mikhail---partially because of the general in "Somewhere Down This Road,"---but they call him Mikey, or later Mike. I know what you're thinking---why not name him Nicholas, Alexei, Vladimir, etc.? It's simple. It wouldn't be right to choose just one of her relatives to name him after, and it'd be depressing. And Vlad would say thanks but no thanks, you don't need to do that, make your own desicion, more or less. It would be confusing. So, we get Mikhail, who by the way would be the spitting image of his dad, just like Tasha is of Anya. I think that covers it.) _Anyway_ (deep breath). :D Read on, enjoy, please review, and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays from CV. Peace and love.**

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Her wavy, brownish-red locks grazed the striped paper as she pressed her ear to the top of the package. She didn't hear any purring, neighing, or barking---_so it's not a kitty, a puppy, or a pony,_ she thought.

"Hm-mm."

She heard someone clear their throat behind her, and turned around, startled. Her father stood against the doorframe, arms folded, an amused look on his face.

"Hi daddy," Tasha said innocently, and casually stepped away from the little pile of presents.

Dimitri shook his head. "No way, missy. Don't even try the 'I-didn't-do-it' face with me. I _invented_ the 'I-didn't-do-it' face."

"I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a puppy," the little girl earnestly assured.

Dimitri tried not to wince. Somewhere in the house, somewhere close, he could have sworn Pooka was laughing maniacally. "Trust me. It's not a puppy." He handed his daughter the cookie that had been in his other hand, surprised that she hadn't noticed it yet. It was Christmas Eve, he reasoned. Her kid-radar must have been preoccupied. "Here."

Tasha knew better than to question being given a cookie at eleven-o-clock---she couldn't have slept anyway, and it wasn't the first time she'd shared illegal baked goods with her father past bedtime. "Thanks, daddy!"

"So you couldn't sleep, huh, kiddo?"

She shook her head and swallowed. "Nuh-uh. Maybe if I was real quiet, I could see Santa!"

"I bet." Dimitri sat down on the sofa so he was at eye-level with her. "You know what?"

"What?" Tasha asked through a mouthful of cookie.

"I used to do the same exact thing."

"You?"

"Yep. I remember, the year I was nine, I waited till everyone was asleep, and I snuck down, real quiet, and just waited to see something happen. Except, the presents back then weren't for me. And the tree made this one look like a toothpick."

"Really?" Tasha breathed, brushing the specks of evidence from her nightgown.

"Oh yeah, absolutely."

At that moment, they were both startled to see the light flick on, and both looked up. Anya stood at the base of the stairs, and this time _she_ was the one with her arms folded and an amused look on her face.

"What happened to 'not a creature was stirring?'" she said with a grin.

Dimitri looked sheepish. He exchanged a glance with Tasha. "We heard a noise, so we figured we'd check it out. Right, Tash?"

"Yes," the little girl nodded.

Anya just shook her head. _I can't keep either one of you asleep, can I._ "Uh-huh," she said sarcastically. "They're going to have to change that story to '_every_ creature was stirring' or 'not a creature was stirring but Butch Cassidy and the Littlest Bandit.'"

"I'm assuming I'm not the second one," Dimitri confirmed.

"And you gave her a cookie, didn't you?"

"How..." Dimitri could only gape at her. Anya, her smile widening, only raised an eyebrow.

"Mama!" Tasha interjected. "Did you ever see Santa?"

"Well, sure I did, wasn't Grandpa Vlad just here yesterday?"

Tasha rolled her cerulean eyes. "_Mamaaaaa_. You're silly."

Dimitri saw an opening, and there had never been a decent chance he didn't take. "Come on, Anya, what do you say? Go get Mikey, we'll all watch the snow for a while. Maybe let the kids open a g - i - f - t early."

Anya pondered the thought a moment. "It _is_ beautiful tonight." She took in the sweet, pleading face of her six-year-old daughter and the mock puppy-dog face on her husband. "All right," she conceded, and headed back up the stairs, hearing Tasha's muffled whispers of excitement behind her. When she returned, she held her one-year-old son, still sound asleep, cradled in her arms.

"Merry Christmas, Mikey," Tasha whispered, and blew a kiss to her little brother.

"Come on. Let's go to the window by the tree. Tasha, you can open a present now if you like---just save the rest for tomorrow."

"Yay!" She remembered, after that, that the baby was asleep, and repeated in a whisper, "Yay!" before carefully selecting a gift.

Dimitri smiled, leaned closer to Anya's ear, and whispered, "I think the sugar's setting in."

Anya returned both the smile and the whisper. "Just imagine what we'll have on our hands tomorrow morning."

The faint crackling sound of wrapping paper mingled in the quiet air with the faint crackling sound of the fire. Outside, fluffy, soft flakes of a perfect new snow drifted silently, making their way through the sky, becoming a blanket of white for the day ahead.


End file.
